The Million Dollar Queston??

What would YOU do if you suddenly had a million dollars? I asked Pene Henson that same question and she listed five things she would do. Check it out. ...

I always say I would give half away. If it’s a windfall then I never had it to start with. I hope by repeatedly saying it, I will do it if it happens.

I know it’s dull but I can’t not list: pay off my mortgage. I live in Sydney, an expensive city, in a house we love with neighbours and a community we love. It would be glorious not to owe the bank so much money.

You know what, I’d also renovate here, add some rooms upstairs so the kids could have their own space as they get older.

Then… THEN… I’d rent a house somewhere in Hawaii for a month or more and invite friends in groups and have enough space for my wife and kids and a room to write.

And I’d travel to the greatest football (soccer) playing parts of the world and let my kid train with the best of them.

Blurb:

Tai Talagi and Ollie Birkstrom have been inseparable since they met as kids surfing the North Shore. Now they live with their best friends in a pulled-together family, sharing life and the saltwater in their veins. Tai’s spent years setting aside his feelings for Ollie, but when Ollie’s pro surfing aspirations come to fruition, their steady world shifts. Is the relationship worth risking everything for a chance at something terrifying and beautiful and altogether new? Add to Goodreads

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Excerpt:

Across from them, one of the Brazilians plays guitar. Ollie doesn’t recognize the song even when a couple of others sing along. The beach is wider and the sand finer than on the North Shore, but every beach is a little like home. Ollie misses the Blue House; he misses the surf and the palms and the shoreline he knows so well. He misses Jaime and Sunny and Hannah. Still, though he’s as far from home as he’s ever been, Ollie’s comfortable. These are his people, too. He leans back on his arms and looks up into the dark.

He’s watched the night sky since he was a little kid, but down here in the Southern Hemisphere he doesn’t recognize the hundreds upon hundreds of stars. The Southern Cross is up there. Ollie tries to orient himself.

Tai shifts toward him, then looks up and follows Ollie’s gaze. The warmth of Tai’s body settles into Ollie’s heart, grounds him. Ollie leans into him a little, and their arms brush to the elbow. The contact simmers in the air between them.

Unexpectedly, Ollie knows what he wants. “Come back to the hotel,” he says quietly to Tai. He pitches his voice low. It hums across the tiny space between them. No one else can hear him over the pounding surf and the sound of the music. It’s easy to be bold in the dark of a beach where Ollie’s never been before. He’s shocked by that same boldness.

Meet the author:

Pene Henson has gone from British boarding schools to New York City law firms. She now lives in Sydney, Australia, where she is an intellectual property lawyer and published poet who is deeply immersed in the city’s LGBTQIA community. She spends her spare time enjoying the outdoors and gazing at the ocean with her gorgeous wife and two unexpectedly exceptional sons. Into the Blue is her first novel.